UCLA won the turnover battle and committed fewer penalties. The Bruins had the lead entering the fourth quarter. It looked like they may have finally conquered Stanford, their longtime Bay Area bully.

Ten plays, 70 yards and an 8-yard touchdown pass later, the Bruins were right back where they have been against the Cardinal for the better part of the past decade.

On the losing end.

The flirtation with victory made last year’s loss to Stanford perhaps one of the most painful in UCLA’s nine-game skid in the series. With the Cardinal (1-2, 0-1 Pac-12) are off to their worst start since 2008 – the last season UCLA notched a win in the series – the Bruins (2-1, 0-0 Pac-12) will again try to scale their most challenging Pac-12 mountain at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Stanford Stadium.

“The coaches are saying that we need to basically leave it all on the field,” offensive lineman Michael Alves said. “Of course, that’s the expectation for every game, but they said that this is the specific game that we need to really put forward all our effort.”

When UCLA has the ball

Jedd Fisch showers Josh Rosen with clip after clip of simple checkdowns and quarterbacks absorbing sacks. On the screen and on the whiteboard, it all seems so simple. Rosen hopes he can keep it that way on the field.

“It’s a whole different world behind center,” the junior quarterback said. “Studying is about turning things into action and hopefully on the field, you’re not really thinking. You’re just reacting to the things you’re accustomed to seeing in practice and on film.”

Last week’s loss magnified two small mistakes that came in an otherwise stellar 463-yard, four-touchdown passing performance for Rosen. The junior leads the country with 1,283 passing yards and 13 touchdown passes, but is still working to perfect his place in Fisch’s system.

Within the scheme, Rosen’s brilliance will be revealed through quick, efficient and smart decisions, not through the “hero ball” he admitted to playing against Memphis that resulted in an ill-advised throw across his body and an interception in the red zone.

“He’s got a way to go,” Fisch said, “and that’s why he’s a junior in college and not a 40-year-old starter in New England.”

The Cardinal are 11th in the Pac-12 in rushing defense, allowing 208.0 yards per game. Only the Bruins are worse.

When Stanford has the ball

Except for an 80-yard run on the first play of the game, the UCLA defense held Memphis to 2.3 yards per carry last week. But there’s one problem.

“There are no ‘except fors,'” Bruins head coach Jim Mora said.

Last week, the Bruins gave up nine explosive plays, which Mora defines as a 20-yard pass or a 12-yard run. Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley is stingier, though. He prefers to hold his team to a 15-yard-pass, 10-yard-rush standard, which makes the nonconference struggles even more frustrating for the coach.

“If you’re going to play great defense, you cannot give up explosive plays,” Bradley said. “You got missed tackles, bad angles, those are the things that will kill you. Maybe it sounds simple, but that’s what it comes down to.”

The Cardinal, who once ground opponents into submission with a punishing style, now depend on the big-play ability of running back Bryce Love. Stanford quarterback Keller Chryst is nine months removed from a knee injury suffered in last year’s bowl game and last in the Pac-12 in pass efficiency. The offensive line started a true freshman at left tackle last week. Stanford has reached the red zone only 11 times in three games, tied for third-worst in the Pac-12.

Love averages 12.2 yards a carry with touchdown runs of 50 yards or longer in each of Stanford’s first three games. He broke off two against San Diego State last week and burned USC with a 75-yarder in Stanford’s Pac-12 opener.

“He’s really everything you want in a running back,” Mora said. “He’s elusive, he’s powerful, he’s explosive and he’s a heck of a protector, so that’s why we consider him not just a good one, but a great one.”

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.